How To Become A Christian Counselor

Christian counselors are among the most highly sought-after professionals in today's society. With depression statistics skyrocketing, medical and spiritual conditions on the rise, parenting conundrums ever-increasing, and marriages in dire need of repair, Christian counselors provide a necessary solution to the manifest dangers that are shredding our nation's moral and spiritual fabric. Biblical counseling has never been more critical.

Steps To Becoming A Christian Counselor

Becoming a Christian counselor takes work and effort, like any career path, but it is far from impossible. Here are the steps to follow in how to become a Christian counselor.

1. Develop a Strong Personal Faith

Although it sounds rudimentary, the Christian counselor must first know their faith. Personal faith is the root of the desire and ability to become a Christian counselor. To become a biblical Christian counselor and integrate God's Word into your counseling practice, you must go beyond being a licensed professional counselor. You must understand and believe in God. Christian faith is at the core of Christian counseling.

2. Get the Right Education

Courses that prepare you for a career in Christian counseling are available to students pursuing a full bachelor's degree or master's degree. These master's degrees in Christian counseling programs and faith-based courses, such as biblical studies, theology, and church administration, will prepare you with the Christian foundation necessary to become a Christian counselor.

Top-notch training is essential for professional counselors. You must find an accredited college with a reputable counseling degree program. Education—specifically the proper education—is critical for career counselors. All potential professional counselors receive training in psychology, statistics, sociology, counseling techniques, human development, and other foundational classes. According to statistics almost half of all counselors have earned a master's or doctoral counseling degree.

Colorado Christian University teaches all courses in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program with a Christian worldview. This faith-based perspective to teaching uniquely prepares students for a career in Christian counseling, going beyond the typical psychological training in traditional mental health counseling degree programs. While CCU doesn't specifically offer a Christian counseling degree, our programs are taught from a Christian perspective, equipping students with Christian values in their counseling practice.

Continuing education is required in this field, so your master's degree will be prepared for a life of learning. In addition, online degree programs can make obtaining your master's degree much easier while holding a full-time job or raising children

3. Choose an Area of Specialty

Mental health counseling is a vast field with a wide array of specialties. At some point, you may want to narrow down your training and area of focus to hone in on a single counseling specialty, such as marriage and family therapy, substance abuse and use disorder, adolescence, behavioral disorder, rational emotive behavioral therapy, etc.

By choosing a specific style of therapy or focusing on specific mental health disorders and refining your skills in that domain, you can better serve your clients and make a more significant impact in their lives. Furthermore, this specialization allows you to stay up-to-date with the latest research, methodologies, and best practices, ensuring that you remain at the forefront of your chosen niche within the mental health counseling field. Whatever you choose, you will always need to look at it through the lens of your Christian faith.

4. Gain Experience

After your education is complete, it's time to get some real out-of-the-classroom experience in counseling. Counseling jobs abound, but with an already advanced degree in counseling, it's still important to keep aware of potential opportunities and seek those openings that will best your counseling skills and help your future career.

5. Get Counseling Licensure

Since nearly every state requires counselors to be board-certified, licensing is essential to becoming a Christian counselor. To become a National Certified Counselor, as conferred by the National Board for Certified Counselors, applicants must have a minimum of two years of experience in counseling, hold a bachelor's degree or a graduate degree, and successfully pass the NCC examination. Only with the NCC licensure is one lawfully given the right to practice biblical counseling as a career.

Christian Counseling Career Outlook

Once you have completed the steps above, you will be a licensed counselor and ready to pursue a career in Christian counseling. As society recognizes the importance of Christian counseling, job opportunities for pastoral counselors are increasing, especially within churches, theological schools practice counseling and Christian organizations.

Christian Counseling Professionals Offer What's Needed

Christian mental health counselors can offer a unique service to clients, combining psychological methods with faith-based approaches to group counseling. This combination is invaluable for those who seek to integrate their beliefs and values with their mental health struggles.

Furthermore, Christian counselors can offer counseling theories and a unique perspective on their clients' issues that can foster hope, comfort, and encouragement. Finally, by integrating faith and psychology into counseling degrees, Christian counselors can offer solutions and insights to behavioral disorders and substance abuse to help clients become healthier in their minds, bodies, and spirits.

Christian Counseling Opportunities

Christian counselors are essential today due to the unique combination of faith and psychology and counseling theories they bring to the table. Christian counseling offers clients a holistic approach to mental health, including spirituality, which can be critical in treating and recovering from many mental illnesses. Today's society is searching for something more profound than traditional therapeutic approaches can provide. Integrating faith and psychology through a biblical perspective in counseling is an effective way to meet that need.

The need for Christian counseling services is increasing dramatically, leading to employment opportunities rising for counselors. Christian counselors offer various essential services across different sectors, such as churches and hospitals. Counseling services provided by Christian counselors could include psychological counseling, mental family counseling, psychological and family counseling, psychological theories and health therapy, pastoral counseling, and prayer counseling.

Standing Out from the Crowd

What sets Christian counselors apart from family therapists, licensed marriage, pastoral counselors, and their secular counterparts in addiction counseling is their insight into the spiritual aspect of healing. Christian counselors are equipped to provide their clients with the compassionate listening ear essential to recovery, spiritual wisdom that offers a deeper understanding of the issues, and hope that can encourage and inspire progress. They lead clients towards a healthy balance of the personal and spiritual aspects, leading to spiritual maturity underpinned by recovery.

Christian counselors are trained to support marriage and family therapists with practical biblical counseling that extends to every aspect of their client's life, ensuring they come out of counseling with a renewed perspective and a positive outlook.

One of the most significant advantages of Christian counseling is that it is Jesus-centered. Christian biblical counselors will anchor you on the truth, Jesus Christ. As biblical principles guide, counseling sessions with certified biblical counselors also can include prayer, meditation, and Biblical readings. This approach to biblical counseling helps clients understand the value of the Word of God and its central role in their mental and spiritual being.

Moreover, Christian pastoral counselors are well-versed in biblical theology and the Scriptures. As a result, they and biblical counselors are equipped to use the Word of God as the standard of authority in crisis counseling and handling life issues. Christian counseling can be traced back to scriptural times when individuals sought Godly counsel from those anointed to provide it.

The difference is readily evident when you compare Christian counseling to other forms of counseling. It's in the approach and worldview that Christian counseling brings to mental illness, health disorders, illness, health disorders, behavioral disorders, and spiritual healing. Christian counseling focuses on wholeness and views each client as a unique being created with God-given gifts and talents.

By using spiritual formation and emphasizing faith, hope, and love, Christian counseling teaches the clients the importance of living a life rooted in faith, marriage, and family therapists, which can ultimately transform every aspect of one's life, whether relationships, work, or anything else.

Conclusion

Becoming a Christian counselor is an excellent career choice for those passionate about counseling skills helping others, and deeply committed to their faith. Becoming a licensed Christian counselor takes a lot of work and effort, but the benefits are tremendous. You will have the opportunity to help others profoundly and be part of one of the fastest-growing professions in the country. So if you feel called to Christian counseling, take the steps necessary to pursue your dream, and watch as you become an agent of hope and healing to those around you.

Colorado Christian University does not guarantee any job placement as a result of earning this or any other degrees offered by the university.